Is there any new talk about the future of BEETLEJUICE? — Page 2

@hearthemsing22

I’m not sure if your post was all meant to be directed at me, or if you’re just making general statements about your opinions on the fandom. But in case you meant to direct this at me, let me just clarify:

I have no real horse in this race. I enjoyed Beetlejuice, and I think it’s a damn shame what happened to the production. But I do not consider myself a part of the “fandom,” and I agree with just about everything you said in your post. I don’t condone any nastiness that’s taken place. And I agree that any animosity toward Music Man is misplaced. I would even go so far as to say that much of the animosity toward Scott Rudin is misplaced (on this issue, at least). Ultimately it was the Shuberts that threw Beetlejuice under the bus.

The point of my last post was simply to explain how the unusual circumstances of the show’s closing might have impacted the quality and duration of the conversation around the show. I just think it’s a fascinating case, but I wasn’t trying to excuse or condone any bad behavior.

BUT WILL IT TRANSFER TO BROADWAY???

Without wanting to incite any sincere speculation about that... as a side note, just thinking more generally about the industry, I guess if there were ever a prime time for a South Korean or maybe Japanese production of something to gain buzz in the English-speaking world and be considered for an eventual transfer, it would be within the next year or two.

Updated On: 9/13/21 at 05:57 PM

hearthemsing22 said: "I completely understand missing a show. I do. But my GOD have Beetlejuice fans gone over the top. My god. If it’s going to come back, they’ll say so. Until then, why can’t you support other things? Move. On. They also announced a tour around the time the show closed, so. It closed. It’s over. Do you really have nothing better going on that you have to keep moping about this show??? I’ve never met a more annoying fandom."

 

I couldn't have said it more politely if I tried. 

As if that quote from Alex Brightman was the perfect time to use this:

*sigh* Ok. Look. I was in the "they are totally gonna transfer" camp a few months ago but now... come on people. I KNOW the actors seem sure about this but I think that everyone, producers, actors, and fans, and living in a time that has split away from us now.

I DO think that yes, plans were in place for the show to move. I think it was only a short time away from being announced when the big ol' C19 hit. At this point, the producers need to think.... is the transfer they had planned now financially viable for them upon the return of Broadway? They are already at a lose, they would be putting even more money into loading into a new house.

Now, in the be BEFORE TIMES, they would have been able to transfer because they survived on the tourist crowd coming into the city, going to TKTS, thinking 'oh hey I've HEARD of Beetlejuice. That's a musical now? Let's go see THAT.'  That is NOT the world that Broadway is going to be reopening in. With the way numbers are going in the US, it is going to be a long LONG time before you see the return of that same kind of tourism to the City. 

The only thing I can see here is if the producers have signed some kind of agreement with one of the theatre owners that they are committed to reopening. Which IS possible? Maybe? But I think they would be much MUCH smarter to take the set, and go what I am officially calling "the way of Spongebob" anymore. Set it all up, get an audience of super fans, record it, license it to a streaming service (they seem VERY hungry for more and more musical theatre content for their platforms as of late) and eventually release it as a recording. You are making back some of your lost investment by taking the product DIRECTLY to those that want it. The fandom.

Funny, you can see that two months ago I was all about "shut it down, cancel the tour, license it out and rake in the cash from every school in America." But two months later? I feel more ambiguous about it. Not because of the business of Broadway, but because of the business of mass media.

Universal has sunk BIG into making Beetlejuice a cultural and merchandising juggernaut in the past few years, and the Beetlejuice musical was an unexpectedly successful part of that merchandising push. It was supposed to be an advertisement for the brand, but wound up being, to some extent, one of the bigger parts of the brand itself. We can't predict what they're going to do to keep the Beetle-train going, because there's never been a CLOSED, CANCELLED musical like this. Even ignoring the way the show was sort of railroaded out of its own success, closed shows don't traditionally generate new merchandise, increasingly active social media accounts, or cross-promote themselves on culty cartoon series like "Teen Titans Go." Universal has an investment in making Beetlejuice their version of Deadpool, and Alex Brightman is a LOT cheaper of a get than Ryan Reynolds unless his John Belushi movie rockets him to the Oscars. So I'm less convinced than before that we've seen the last of Beetlejuice...

We need a pro-shot on netflix/disney+ 

With all the pro-shot ads, they obviously already have all/most of the footage

(Maybe next october or they could roll it out with a Nightmare Before Christmas special)

Who doesn't love a spooky christmas?

SayNoToJugs said: "We need a pro-shot on netflix/disney+

With all the pro-shot ads, they obviously already have all/most ofthe footage

(Maybe next october or they could roll it out with aNightmare Before Christmas special)

Who doesn't love a spooky christmas?"

Cast members including Alex Brightman have confirmed that the only thing filmed were specific clips for B-roll and ads. The entire show was never filmed all the way through, even for the TOFT archives (as echoed above, it was supposed to be filmed in April)

Yeah walked by the Winter Garden and they had the loading doors open! Didn’t see much of any set pieces, but fun to just see inside a theater!

jimmycurry01 said: "........In the mean time, this show is over. It's time to move on."

 

It is way past the time to move on.  The time to move on was many many many months ago. Hopefully the speculation about this show coming back will finally end when The Music Man starts.

 

Updated On: 9/13/21 at 02:21 PM